Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's remarkable journey from Hollywood royalty to blacklisted writer to Academy Award winner is told through the writer's own indelible words. Combined are performances of some of his extraordinary letters, clips from his films and archival and contemporary interviews with those who knew him best, which illustrate how one man's unerring belief in the First Amendment and the power of the written word--plus a drink or two--empowered him to fight back after being blacklisted by HUAC.